


they were all just a little bit wicked

by afrocurl



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Gift Fic, Post-Canon, Slice of Life, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 20:06:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/pseuds/afrocurl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Only after Don finished his toast to Will and Mac did he realize how royally fucked he was going to be with them gone. Especially when all Sloan could do was remind him of <i>their</i> relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	they were all just a little bit wicked

**Author's Note:**

  * For [queer_theory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/queer_theory/gifts).



> Happy Delicatemas, **queer_theory**!

“You know it’ll be worse for us,” she said into his ear once he'd spent ten minutes embarrassing the couple.

“SHIT!” he hissed, and took in what she’d said. There was an _us_ and there was a ‘worse for us’ and that nearly implied that this was for keeps. He tried to keep that side of his mind at rest and instead focused on what else she had meant to say. His toast was _just_ this side of roast-worthy, even if it was Will and Mac, and even if it was a small ceremony.

He should have known better than to share _that_ many stories - and that many stories that were well known - though given the group invited to the wedding everyone already knew them and didn’t care; they all laughed in the right places as if they had to keep up appearances - the wedding equivalent of smiling and nodding. It was easier to fall back onto all the stories he told, and given that he and Sloan had been otherwise engaged when he should have been working on his toast, everything was officially up shit creek. It didn’t seem to matter to anyone else, though. Charlie looked happy at hearing the story of Will and the new intern for what must have been the twentieth time, as did Mac. Maggie looked put out at having to hear any of this, and he thought that at some point Sloan should have just told Maggie to cut her losses and get the hell out of here.

Don just let the rest of the night pass by. Sloan said nothing else after his toast, though she did all but drag him out onto the dance floor once Will and Mac had shared their first dance. Neal was busy drinking and looking like a fool - on and off the dance floor - and Maggie still looked as if she wanted to throw daggers at Jim for the rest of the night because he had done something to upset her. Don knew well enough not to ask, and knew that Sloan’s good mood would do nothing to change Maggie’s foul one.

All in all, everything else felt normal, and felt as if par of the ACN news family was as it should be. Even when the heads of the pen were about to leave on a three-week honeymoon - though no one but Charlie and Leona knew where they were headed.

Don let the rest of the night fade into a slightly alcoholic haze, Sloan at his side or close to it. It felt like as good a beginning as he could hope for.

-

Given any number of problems with people coming into the New York offices of ACN, Charlie had all but forced Don and Sloan to run both News Night and her show while Will and Mac were off drinking whatever it was that they’d decided to drink on this honeymoon in whatever warm and sunny location they were.

However, Charlie’s decision basically forced all of the staff into extreme situations. They had lost either Will or Mac on occasion, but losing both of them at the same time seemed to be creating any number of myriad difficulties.

In the pre-show meeting, Maggie and Jim were sniping at each other - they'd clearly passed the ignoring-each-other phase of their hatred - and Neal still kept pressing issues that seemed ridiculous to Don’s ears.

“Really you two? Can you cut it the fuck off? We have serious work to do.” At the opposite end of the table, Sloan sniffled a laugh - poorly - and tried to keep a straight face. Don gave her a look that said ‘please don’t fuck up this meeting more than it already is’, but it did nothing. She laughed again.

Her laughter started to migrate down the table - Gary, then Jim, then Neal, then Kendra. Before long, it was the entire room erupting in laughter and giggles.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Sloan!” he gritted out, annoyed that one of the few times he had control, he lost it so quickly. Moreover, the fact that Sloan was responsible made it even more frustrating.

Why couldn't he have found an easygoing girlfriend to work with, who didn't cause him trouble? Why did his girlfriend have to find everything to be endlessly funny?

Wait, he knew the answer to that: no one who worked in television and then was fool enough to date someone in television got off without calling down some kind of trouble on his or her head. Will and Mac had taught him that. 

-

The broadcast that night was tense, if nothing else. Jim and Maggie’s earlier spat had escalated into a full-blown fight - silent treatment after yelling and all - and so Jim’s help in the control room was minimal at best. It was as if all the drama in the day’s meeting had decided to spell doom for the actual broadcast. Sloan’s notes had _somehow_ gotten out of order and one of the guests had walked into make-up looking like death warmed over. It didn’t help that the guest was meant to be the lead on a story about the stakes in the Supreme Court’s decision on DOMA, or that without that guest there was no panel to discuss.

Don was about to yell at the entirety of the control room - even though it wasn’t their fault - when Maggie rushed in. 

“I found someone, and they can be here in twenty minutes. Can we push that segment to the end?” she asked.

He had no real time to think and said, “Yes” to the whole room and watched as the team went into a frenzy to get clips reordered and placed.

“Sloan, the DOMA segment is now in Block C and we’re going to move every up to put it there. Got it?”

She nodded and then said, “Got it, but I could use some help from someone to get all of these notes in order. Or can we just kill that intern who fucked them up in the first place?”

“There’s no death and destruction without Will and Mac here, remember what Charlie said. Or you know, think of what Leona and Reese would do if that happened when Will wasn’t here.”

She laughed and replied, “Noted. But get someone here to fix this. I can’t take having these all out of order right now.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” He pulled up the phone and started to bark an order to someone else on the stage to help Sloan fix her notes. 

No one needed to be told that failure to follow that order actually would mean death and destruction, regardless of who was or wasn't there. It was all understood as Don’s voice pitched into his nervous range and he started to run a hand through his hair.

-

Through some miracle Don didn’t think possible, they survived that show. Only it was one of the first disasters in the rest of the week.

Some local sheriff up in Westchester and someone _claiming_ to be Ichabod Crane had managed to save the world from ending, if their Captain was to be believed.

“Is this real?” Sloan asked for the fifteenth time after Neal had found the story.

“Apparently so. Captain Irving sounded like he was disbelieving at first too. Just try to play it off as cool and not terrified when they’re in the next segment.”

“You expect me not to lose it at a guy from the 1700s?”

“I do, because I know you’re a journalist of the highest quality.”

Sloan laughed loudly into the microphone and left Don to look at the control panel for the feed of the green room where Mills and Crane were waiting. The man looked like he'd taken a very wrong turn on his way to the Boston Tea Party.

Don had to stifle his own laughter at the entire idea of the segment before he couldn’t stop.

-

“You know you’re in for payback,” she said quietly. She leaned in close to him, and if he weren’t so preoccupied with what Will was going to say, he’d have kissed her. Not that he hadn’t already kissed her more than enough for a day. Only that was an understatement. He’d never stop wanting to kiss her.

Today he just had the opportunity to kiss her without question in front of all of their colleagues.

Out of the corner of his eye, Don saw Will stand and start to move towards the microphone.

With a loud cough, Will started. “I’m not only here today as Don’s best man, but as one of the people responsible for this marriage in the first place. Yes, I know, I’m already gloating and we’re no more than a minute into this toast, but go with it. You really don’t have any other choice.”

Don’s mind only half registered the rest of the toast as Sloan’s hand was intertwined with his, but as soon as Will mentioned the autograph book, Don groaned.

“I told you it’d be bad,” Sloan said before placing a quick kiss to the side of his lips. Given what he had done years before, he shouldn’t have expected anything less.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to **ninemoons42** for the beta, and hand-holding as I dove into a new fandom for a gift fic for another friend.


End file.
